The Dark Side of Dhaka (Bengali)
The Dark Side of Dhaka 2021. Just over a decade ago, in 2008, almost half of the world’s total population used to live in urban areas. This phenomenon has continued and is expected to gain further momentum in future. According to United Nations (UN), it is projected that the world urban population will increase by 72 percent by 2050, from 3.6 billion in 2011 to 6.3 billion in 2050 of which the majority of the population will be concentrated in the urban areas of the less developed regions.
Cities such as London or New York in developed countries have had very slow growth between 1970 and 2011, compared with cities in the developing world. India, for example, already has three megacities (Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata) and with the addition of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, India is expected to have six by 2020. The country will have the largest concentration of megacities in the world. This gives one an idea of the pressure of population growth in cities of developing countries.
WHERE DOES DHAKA LIE?
Even though Bangladesh has achieved an amazing feat in reducing the annual growth rate of population, the size of population is still large when compared with the size of the country. If the current trend continues, the population of Bangladesh is expected to reach about 194 million in 2050 (UN 2012). Understandably, this population exerts tremendous pressure on a limited resource base. As a result, both landlessness and environmental degradation have become rampant in recent times. For instance, the total proportion of land holdings being farmed has been reduced from 72.7 percent in 1983 to about 58.6 percent in 2008. Furthermore, because of rapid growth of urbanisation and associated infrastructure, every year Bangladesh loses 0.3 percent of its cultivated land. We have to keep in mind that the economy of Bangladesh is still mostly agrarian with 48 percent of the labour force engaged in agriculture and related activities (BBS 2010).
Along with national population growth, the percentage of people living in urban areas has also been rising. 1.8 million people were living in urban areas in 1951 which increased to 13.5 million, 22.5 million, 31 million and 33.5 million in 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 respectively; an eighteen-fold increase in the last 60 years. This astonishing growth in urban population is largely attributed to three main factors, namely: (i) rural-urban migration, (ii) natural growth and (iii) the redefinition of urban areas. It is affirmed by experts that among them, rural-urban migration is the most dominant factor. Moreover, the country faces enormous challenges in coping with the infrastructures and service requirements for its rapidly growing urban population, particularly in the capital city Dhaka.
Dhaka has seen astonishing growth and rapid development since 1971. It has changed into the capital of a nation from a mere provincial city since the birth of Bangladesh. It is one of the only seven cities in the world which has experienced urban population growth higher than 2.4 percent between 1975 and 2005 (UN 2006). It was one of the top ten megacities in the world in 2011. Unfortunately, the development took place in an unplanned way, especially since the 1990s. These days the name Dhaka regularly comes up in the list of the most unliveable cities.
Plot
Five individual stories are connected to each other in the basis of their nature. Actually the Dark Side of the capital Dhaka, has been sketched throughout the film. What happens over our eyes in the dark of the night.
